Edge magazine relives the original PlayStation launch as they reported it 26 years ago, reflecting on a console debut that rewrote the future of video-games
Over the past 26 years, Sony has sold close to 550 million consoles and handhelds under the PlayStation brand name. In context, that's around 1.7 consoles for every single person living in North America today.
As PS5 prepares for its November 12 launch, it's tempting to view the PlayStation's success as a form of done deal. There was a moment, of course, when the PlayStation didn't even bear its familiar name, and was yet to sell a single console, as it prepared to enter a market dominated by Sega and Nintendo.
This story takes us back to the late 80s as Sony chairman Ken Kutaragi watches his daughter play the Nintendo Famicom, to the creation of a new business unit within one of Japan's most venerable technology firms, to the night a group of Sony executives assembled to decide PlayStation's jaw-dropping $299 US launch price ahead of E3 1995.
Respected UK games publication Edge reported PlayStation's launch as it happened. We'll relive the highlights of those early years in the article to follow, before catching up with former PlayStation director of product development, Phil Harrison, to look back on the moments that shaped the console's formidable legacy, as he remembers it from the time.
